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"The Elevator to Realms" Act 16: Held Between Us

  Kriti “So, this has been with you all this time?”, asked Kriti with a keen expression. “Yeah.” Vaibhav slowly opened the box, revealing the slowly pulsing gem inside. I have not seen anything remotely close to that. He seemed very familiar with the stone as if it was made for him. With a faint smile and a hint of curiosity, I couldn’t help but wonder how would’ve been felt to touch it. He extended his arm slowly with the box. “This is it. This is the stone that shook everything.”, I could clearly see a speck of disappointment in his eyes and voice already. I wish he could’ve told me earlier. I took the box from him. “What does it do exactly? Where did it come from, Vaibhav? I have so many questions, Vaibhav.”, I asked with a huge curiosity. I already knew Vaibhav has been through a lot already. The accident and that fight with the unknown. It must’ve shaken him a lot. “We have a whole day Vaibhav, I wanna know everything. Right from the start.”, I demanded. “Yes, wh...
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"The Elevator to Realms" Act 15: The Quiet Between

"The Elevator to Realms" Act 15: The Quiet Between Sometimes, the calm before the storm is the loudest. A loud announcement and music followed, waking me up. It was early morning. I recollected my senses and realised it was the garbage truck. I heard some chatter from a news channel downstairs, likely coming from the guest room. I got up and flung my arms up in the air. That's when I noticed the bandages. I stared at them and slowly peeled one halfway to take a peek at the wound underneath. It hurt a bit. I went to the mirror and thought to myself, "When will all this be over?" The glowing stone caught my attention. I opened the drawer and looked at it... Pulsing... Wrapped in a cloth. As if it had a life of its own. A heart... It seemed to want to be free. It wanted to be seen. An unknown force. Whatever was inside it... .. I held the stone in my palm and looked at it, "What are you trying to say to me... What do you want...", I whis...
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"The Elevator to Realms" Act 14: The Silence Between Pulses

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  Vaibhav The house was quiet, the kind of silence only early evening brings. Just before street dogs begin barking and the pressure cookers hiss in every household in the colony. A faint hum of the ceiling fan spinning at a very low speed spun above my head as I lay staring at its blades. I was lost.. I just stared at the blades and tried to follow their path. My wrist still throbbed, but the bandages Kriti had carefully wrapped gave me a strange sense of comfort and calmness. I looked at the bandages and let out a sigh. I got up and stared outside my room's window...  Thinking. Is my life really messed up? Where should I put my focus? The supernatural or focus on my life. My career and studies. Which one? I felt helpless and confused. Which one to figure out first? .. I gave a look at that drawer. That stone... It was flickering and pulsing just like before, like it was immortal. I hadn't told anyone. Not even my parents. Damnit. Should I tell them? They deserve to know all ...
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"The Elevator to Realms" Act 13: Scars

  Kriti "YES I'LL BE THERE IN A MINUTE!", Damn. My sister never tried to help herself with her own stuff. Anyways, it was 11 in the morning. It was sunny with cold winds. A perfect day.  "I'm coming!" I yelled back and took my phone, and went down the stairs. I unlocked my phone and saw his Snapchat from last night. The Snapchat was innocent enough. A blurry photo of a coffee mug on his study table, captioned "5 AM, Again. Great." But it wasn't just the coffee I noticed; it was something else. It was the faint smear of blood, trailing like an accidental brush of paint, on Vaibhav's wrist. Just visible at the frame's edge. I immediately took a screenshot as it was gonna disappear. "Let it be. I don't care at this point if he notices I took an SS".  I couldn't help and within seconds, I typed out "What's that on your hand? What the hell happened?!" Avni is still standing in front of me. She seemed confused,...
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"The Elevator to Realms" Act 12: Comeback

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  Vaibhav I sat hunched over my laptop, the pale glow of the screen casting sharp shadows across my face. The time on the corner of the screen read 1:30 AM. I was not even remotely tired. I searched and rummaged through tabs and browsed various universities in Bangalore. In another tab, I had a question from Quora open. It said, "How to get into good Colleges. Should I consider dropping a year?" Familiar stuff every student has to go through at least once in their life — the late-night panic scrolls, the self-doubt spirals, and that overwhelming feeling of being a tiny dot in a giant, competitive universe. I leaned back in my chair, letting out a tired sigh. The chair creaked under the weight of my thoughts more than my body. My eyes felt dry, but sleep wasn’t anywhere in sight. Maybe a cup of coffee would help, or maybe it would just give me something to do other than spiralling into yet another search for it. I pushed my chair back and stood up, the room bathed in dim yello...
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"The Elevator to Realms" Act 11: Beneath the Surface

Kriti   They say time changes everything... But, I often wonder if that's always true.  I sit on my bed, scrolling mindlessly through Instagram. We have our English paper the next day and I seemed to be least bothered about it.  "Damn it...", I said to myself and locked the phone instantly before I tossed it over the bed. I can't help but reflect on how much my life has shifted in the past few months. Things were actually simpler before. It was simpler before Aaryan turned out to be someone entirely different before I realized that love-if that's what I could even call it-could turn into poison.  How could I even start trusting people after such an incident? How could I even solely love a person after all this... Aaryan wasn't just toxic; he was suffocating. He'd been controlling and manipulative, slowly isolating me from everyone I cared about. I didn't realize it at first; I was too blinded by the idea of being in a relationship. Maybe it was just me...
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